How to Find Developers to Hire

Contributor: Mike Lee, Co-Founder, EdShelf

Are you an educator with a great idea? Need a developer to help you build your product?

You are unfortunately part of a large sea of people with great ideas. The startup world is littered with more idea people than implementation people. Being an educator, you probably aren’t exposed to many developers. But don’t worry, there are still ways you can find developers.

Look through your own network

Start with people you know. You may already have a developer or two as a 2nd or 3rd degree connection. The closer the connection, the better. This person doesn’t need to be an experienced developer with a Computer Science degree; someone who is willing to learn can be just as good. Building out your idea could be a great way for them to grow their skills.

Partner with technical students

If you are a K-12 educator, your school may have a computer class or workshop with budding technical geniuses. Some of the best developers started out programming at a young age. The chance to make a web or mobile app could be very enticing. However, be careful not to take advantage of a young student’s eagerness. As an authority figure, they will listen to you, perhaps even at the detriment of their homework and studies. Some may need some technical guidance as well. Though it’s not easy, try to find an edtech developer who is willing to mentor your student. If you are in higher education, your university may have programming classes. College students make better partners than high school students, since they have more life experience, need relatively less guidance, and may even genuinely be interested in starting a company with you. Their project with you could be bundled as a class assignment as well, and they have the added benefit of potentially bringing other students into the team.

Work for an edtech company

This isn’t a viable option for everyone. A colleague with whom you’ve worked is always better than a smart stranger. The only way to have technical colleagues is by having worked at a company with them. This method could mean a long journey however, as you can’t just work at an edtech company, than leave in a few months and expect to have formed deep relationships with their developers. (Not to mention potential bridge burning and non-compete clauses that some states carry.) It’s a small industry and you could lose a lot of goodwill that way. It may take at least a year at an edtech company to create meaningful relationships there.

Go to a Startup Weekend EDU

Startup Weekend EDU is a weekend-long “hackathon,” where various people come together to build a website or mobile app. It is an intense adrenalin- and caffeine-fueled event. The audience includes idea people, marketers, designers, and developers. The first day starts off with all the idea people pitching their ideas to the whole room. Then everyone is free to walk around to learn more about each idea. The best ideas eventually attract teams – which hopefully includes developers too. It’s not easy to attract developers, but it is possible if you know how to appeal to them.

Go to edtech meetups

Meetups are informal gatherings of people facilitated by the site Meetup.com. Some cities, though not many, have a large enough edtech community to host edtech-specific meetups. Silicon Valley has one, but not many others do. These meetups tend to attract more entrepreneurs than educators, including some developers. Ed-Tech Meetup is one of the more popular ones in San Francisco.

Be an inspirational champion for an cause

Build up your personal brand both offline and online. Get involved in relevant organizations and volunteer groups. Become a recognized leader. I know of one charismatic individual who has done this on Quora, Twitter, and guest blog posts. He doesn’t have a technical background, but his passion and charisma is very apparent. This isn’t a guarantee of finding developers, but it can make it easier to convince one to join you.